


Down Into The Darkness

by Merrinpippy



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: And he also happens to find his way into Gollum's cave, How convenient, M/M, Pre-Slash, So not much changed on that front either, So not much has really changed, Thorin also happens to fall on mushrooms, Thorin rudely interrupts Bilbo and Gollum's game of riddles, Thorin's dumb, Thorin's really pessimistic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-22
Updated: 2013-09-22
Packaged: 2017-12-27 06:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/975660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merrinpippy/pseuds/Merrinpippy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thorin finds himself pushed off of a cliff in Goblin Town, and wakes to distant guttural snarling. With no other way out in sight, he must venture towards it. </p>
<p>And then he hears, “…We like goblinses, batses, and fishes, but we hasn't tried Hobbitses before…”</p>
<p>Well. As he puts it: Mahal, no.</p>
<p>[[Open-ended after a long hiatus. I've deleted 9 of the 10 chapters originally here so if you want them you can request them but otherwise, they're not uploaded anymore.]]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down Into The Darkness

_Bilbo is gone._

One of the many thoughts circling Thorin Oakenshield’s head made it to the surface and his head snapped up. The goblins had led him and his company down to Mahal knows where. They seemed to be waiting for something, and that something worried Thorin. But this new thought worried him more.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…eight, nine, ten…eleven…twelve. And thirteen, himself. The hobbit was not among them.

But he could not ponder on that thought for much longer, for that was when all hell broke loose.

* * *

 

Time seemed to be passing by in a slow-motion blur.

The Goblin King himself had appeared and had _mocked_ him. And then he made a comment about the Pale Orc- but Azog couldn’t be _alive,_ could he? Impossible. It was impossible. And yet…

Suddenly Gandalf was there, and they were fighting for their freedom. Hack, slash, slice. Thorin wasn’t really paying much attention. Except then one of the goblins parried his attack, and forced Thorin backwards into nothing. Thorin fell to the sound of his company’s horrified screams of his name.

* * *

 

Thorin felt like he had been falling forever. When he finally hit the bottom, it wasn’t to the short and sweet death he had been expecting. It was to a cushion of giant mushrooms. Despite being breathless, Thorin felt…strangely okay. And that was when he noticed his sword.

It wasn’t glowing.

_I can’t be so far down that not even goblins live here…can I?_

Thorin surveyed his surroundings. He could only make out one exit. He was sure there were probably more, but Thorin didn’t think it was an amazing idea to go around feeling the walls for any gaps. So with caution, he started forward.

He tried to make as little noise as possible but, since he was a dwarf, that was never going to work out. So Thorin went forward _slowly_ , and on the flattest ground he could find. If no goblins dared to live here, Thorin shuddered to think what did.

He wondered what the company was doing. Probably faring better than he was, considering that they had a wizard to guide them and fellow dwarves to fight beside.

And then he heard it.

A horrible, guttural snarling off in the distance. As much as Thorin wanted to turn around and run the other way, he hadn’t seen any passages branching from the path that he had taken. So he didn’t really have a choice.

As he went further, slower than before, the snarling grew louder and Thorin thought he could make out words.

“…We like goblinses, batses, and fishes, but we hasn't tried Hobbitses before…”

_Mahal, no._

“Is it soft? Is it juicy?”

Thorin sped up in pace ever so slightly, concentrating on being quiet rather than making out words.  He did pause, however, when he was so close he could actually hear another voice. He had heard this one speaking before, but hadn’t paid much mind to it, thinking it to be the creature. But he knew that voice well.

It was Bilbo.

“…I-I want to play. I do, I want to play…”

_What on Middle-earth is he doing?_

Thorin continued forward, still able to hear Bilbo’s voice but unwilling to let himself make them out. Suddenly he came to an open expanse that was lit with reflections of light on water. And there, close to the massive lake that took up most of the cavern, was Bilbo and…some thing.

Some slimy, hobbit-sized creature, thin and bony, with creepy lamp-like eyes. It was dressed in a loincloth and nothing else, exposing its pale, dirty skin that was stretched over its bones.

It was close enough to Bilbo that if it chose, it could easily throttle the hobbit to death. Yet, for some reason, the creature was pacing around, miming something with its hands while Bilbo watched. The hobbit’s sword was drawn, to Thorin’s approval.

“Box…hinges…key…lid…”

The creature’s face contorted until suddenly its face lit up with its eyes wide open.

“Eggses! Eggses!” The creature started giggling and Bilbo’s shoulders slumped, face falling. “Wet, crunchy little eggses! Grandmother taught us to suck them, yes.”

Thorin’s brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of the situation, but then suddenly three things happened. Thorin’s foot slipped and dislodged a rock. Bilbo jerked and turned towards the sound, wielding his blade. And the creature disappeared.

_Mahal, what have I done?_

Thorin stepped out into the open, moving towards Bilbo (and away from large rocks the creature could be hiding behind).

“Thorin?!” Bilbo’s eyes widened and for a second there was a glimmer of hope in them. _A shame,_ thought Thorin. Bilbo’s usually bright and somewhat confident face was now looking more defeated than Thorin had ever seen it. And that was saying something- Thorin could hit himself for the look he had put on the hobbit’s face with every snide comment that left Thorin’s mouth.

_Damn, I have a lot of apologizing to do_. But that had to wait.

Both Bilbo and Thorin wildly looked around for the creature, but it was nowhere to be seen. Its voice, however, echoed eerily around them.

“Gollum, Gollum!” The creature snarled. “Bagginses has a friend! Dwarfses! It interrupted us in the middle of our game, preciousss, yesss.” The creature’s tone darkened. “Praps Bagginses has brought us an extra mealses, preciousss.”

Thorin swung his blade to point at a rock some distance away, over which he thought he had seen the creature’s luminous eyes.

“Ss, ss, Gollum, Gollum! They have swordses, nassssty swordses, made by nasssty elveses!”

_Well, seems as if we have something in common._

“Let’s not be hasty!” Thorin’s head snapped to face Bilbo. “We can- we can continue our game! More riddles, yes?” _Ah, so that’s what they were doing._

“Is it scared?” Thorin returned to searching for the creature. “We thinks Bagginses is scared, precious. And the dwarfses, ss, ss, Gollum. Is it scrumptiously crunchable, my preciousss? We’ve had dwarvses before, yess, but not in a very long while. We’ll be feasssting tonight, my precious, yess!”

Bilbo took a deep breath. “But you’ve never had a hobbit before, have you, Gollum?”

_No. No, nope, not going to happen._

Thorin and Bilbo could see Gollum now, perched on a rock, its face holding so much violence it could give even Azog a run for his money. “No, my precious…but we would like to try!” Gollum launched itself towards Bilbo so fast and with so much force that the hobbit never had a chance.

Bilbo’s blade clattered to the ground as Gollum dragged him away before Thorin could react. Thorin growled and chased the two, but had to duck as a large stone was hurled his way. Suddenly Gollum was on top of its rock again, but this time tearing away at the face of a struggling Bilbo.

Thorin ran towards it with as much speed as he could muster. He tried to keep his attention away from Bilbo’s fragile body being played with like a ragdoll, but to no avail. He could see clearly Gollum pick up a sharp rock and slash at Bilbo with it, toying with its prey, for it could easily stab Bilbo there and then. Thorin was unbelievably glad that Gollum didn’t, despite the hobbit’s heart-wrenching cries of pain.

When he reached the rock, Bilbo had nearly stopped struggling. Resignation was in his eyes. His face was covered in cuts and gashes, but Gollum had moved on to Bilbo’s arms. It seemed intent on causing Bilbo as much pain as possible. The thought filled Thorin with malice, even more so when Gollum started to _sing,_ a horrible unearthly sound to which it rhythmically tore at the hobbit’s arms.    

Finally, Thorin reached the top of the rock. Gollum had its long, spindly hands around Bilbo’s neck and was shaking him violently. And what was worse, Bilbo wasn’t even trying to stop it. The hobbit had _given himself up_ to this fate.

_Not today,_ thought Thorin, as he wrenched the two apart. Gollum had ignored him up until then, but now…Gollum turned its piercing gaze to him. Gollum sat on his haunches, contemplating what to do. After a few seconds it coiled and sprung at him, but Thorin was faster. He neatly sidestepped, letting Gollum fall from the rock. _Like a cat,_ Thorin mused, as Gollum landed on all fours. When it jumped back up, snarling, Thorin braced himself and tore through Gollum’s chest with Orcrist. The lifeless body of Gollum slumped to the ground.

It was incredibly satisfying.   

Thorin turned to Bilbo, who was panting and watching him with something like fear in his wide eyes. He had the right- he had nearly been killed. _He’s safe now._ Bilbo opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. This happened a few times.

Until, “Are you alright?” Thorin nearly glared at the hobbit. He had nearly been choked to death mere seconds prior, yet Bilbo was asking after _Thorin’s_ health? Hope and self-hatred fought each other in Thorin’s heart. Thorin spread his arms, in a gesture meaning ‘I’m unharmed.’  

“Are _you_ alright?” Thorin could not stop the sliver of panic that mixed itself into his words. Bilbo blinked. “I think I’m…fine…” Thorin barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes, but he snorted and sat down next to the hobbit.

“Thank you. For, uh, saving me. You looked- um, that was,” Bilbo took a deep breath. “Wow.” _Odd choice of words._

“Are you really okay, though, Bilbo?” Bilbo’s eyebrows twitched, and Thorin realized that that was the first time Thorin had called Bilbo by his name. He may or may not have blushed.

“I’m _fine._ Well, mostly. Nothing that will last, I don’t think. Wouldn’t be fine if you hadn’t saved me though.” Bilbo smiled faintly up at him. “You know, I thought you were going to run, when Gollum grabbed me.” Bilbo shuddered.

“Why would I…” _Oh. Oh dear._

“Listen, Bilbo. I have not been very…accepting. I have said many less-than-complimentary thing to you and for that I apologize. Recently I have seen…your bravery, your sagacity. And I know I have never been so wrong about anyone, in all my life. I am sorry for doubting you, Bilbo Baggins.”

Thorin could only hope that was enough.

Bilbo stared in open shock at Thorin’s words, but recovered quickly. “No, I- I would have doubted me too.”

Acting on impulse, Thorin reached down and gave Bilbo a hug. Thankfully, Bilbo returned it _very_ quickly so Thorin didn’t have to scold himself for acting without thinking first.

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, before Bilbo stood (shakily) and said (disappointedly), “We should _probably_ go find the rest of the company. I doubt they’d leave without you, but you never know.”

With that, Thorin helped Bilbo down from the rock and they started to make their way towards what Bilbo had said was “where Gollum mentioned safe paths through the mountains.”

And Thorin firmly believed that things were looking up.

Now, if he could only figure out why he suddenly wanted to _hug_ Bilbo again.

Hmm.

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I somehow managed to keep Bilbo alive in this one! 
> 
> That may have something to do with Thorin GLARING at me every time I even TRIED to off his hobbit.
> 
> How sweet.
> 
> ALSO, may add more chapters after this. Depends. What do you guys think?

**Author's Note:**

> EDIT: This is by far the biggest edit I've done. I've deleted 9 chapters, leaving only this 1 behind. I've decided I wasn't as proud of some of them as I should be, and since it's likely I might not finish the series any time soon I thought it'd be best just to not have them up and, I suppose, give people false hope? So. If you do want to see the 9 other chapters you can request them either at my [tumblr](http://www.ravenroac.tumblr.com) or personal message me. Otherwise, that's all folks. Cheers.


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